“Those who do not think religious organizations should have an opinion on climate change misunderstand the purpose of the former and the moral dimensions of the latter,” [Archbishop] Cupich said at a Chicago press conference with EPA Secretary Gina McCarthy.
But the archdiocese’s new awareness of energy issues has nothing to do with mistaking the purpose of the Church, according to Patrick Moore, the co-founder of Greenpeace.
“A lot of world leaders are taking a measurement of what people are thinking, and they all want to be the hero on this one,” Moore said in a phone interview with Watchdog Arena.
“Of course, that’s fairly natural for religion to do, because they’re always trying to save souls.”

Saving souls. It’s been a while since most churchgoers heard that sort of talk which smacks of supernaturalism.

Moore, who holds a PhD in ecology from the University of British Columbia, says many see the climate change movement as a form of religion, but for him, it has more to do with pointing to the “original sin.”
“What they’re basically saying is that we are the enemies of the Earth and the environment, and therefore we should do everything we can to make it seem as though we are not really here,” he said.

Shortly after Pope Francis released his encyclical on climate change earlier this year, Cupich re-emphasized the Holy Father’s concern that global warming would eventually devastate the Earth.
“The Holy Father urges us to stop the steady march to a warmer planet that will change sea levels and crop growing patterns, parch fields and promote famine, and lead to human misery on a scale yet unimagined,” he said.

He’s a true believer, he is.

Cupich said Pope Francis wanted to reduce the use of fossil fuels, rely more on renewable energy sources and re-think over-cooled and over-heated homes and workplaces.
Moore, who left Greenpeace in 1986 and has since become a global warming skeptic, said such suggestions create within the minds of the Catholic faithful “a self-defeating guilt trip.”

Forgive me, Father, I have neglected to recycle.

“You’re afraid you’re going to kill your kids and grandchildren by running your SUV, and you feel guilty for doing it,” Moore said. “The reasoning appeals to those two human motivators – guilt and fear – and for some reason, there’s always been somebody standing on the street corner with a sign saying, ‘the end is nigh.’”

Sandwich-board Catholicism.

Moore, who said he left Greenpeace when his fellow directors abandoned science and plunged into social activism, warned, “We are really doing a disservice by teaching people that fossil fuels are evil. Fossil fuels are, in fact, the largest solar storage of energy there is on the earth.”
Fossil fuels originated in plants and plankton, which grew by photosynthesis in the sea and on the land, and are now buried deep in the earth, Moore said. “They are 100 percent organic, they were created by solar energy, so they were renewable at the time, and now they’re the largest storage batteries on the earth.”

Heretic.

Cupich said Pope Francis is concerned that abuse of the environment will adversely affect the poor, who are the most vulnerable.
“They suffer most from the degradation of the earth – they are the least protected from the increasingly violent swings of nature caused by global warming,” the the archbishop said. “The poor have the greatest exposure to air pollution, droughts, unsafe drinking water and the spread of diseases.”

Oh?

“I’ll tell you what’s worse on the poor – not having any energy to heat their homes,” Moore said in response to the archbishop’s comments. “To hold that position is either extreme naiveté or it’s not caring about what happens.”

Unlike Cupich and the Pope, Moore is optimistic.

“The idea that we are enemies of the earth is a terrible thing to tell our children, because we are from the Earth, we evolved with the rest of life,” he said. “Personally, I’m extremely optimistic about the evolution of our consciousness on this subject.”

2. Mentality of 43-year-old man who refused to show license and instead handed over bottle of gin? In what society has he been living? With how narrow a frame of reference? How many of his background and experience would have gone along with the cop?

3. What is campus cop doing stopping a driver a mile from the campus? What is cop’s history? His demeanor pre-shooting with alleged murderous intent? He should have backed off as car drove away? Gotten out of the way? How was he caught in the door?

4. Dead man was acting like a damn fool but not damned enough to be shot?

5. Prosecutor Deters: First in hundred such cases he has handled in which he sought indictment. How does this differ from previous 99? Why this time? Climate of opinion due to recent events?

My question (that I haven’t heard raised) was — in that split second when the motorist holds on to the car door and turns on the motor to flee — did the cop actually have the ability to AIM for the guy’s head? My opinion is that his wild trigger finger shot anywhere, and as fate would have it — hit the guy’s head.

Typically good stuff from this enterprising writer. Bias evident, but it’s everywhere, so what? My question: Without savings, disaster (= not just cuts but end of payments). Dems have led us down a garden path, refuse to help.

Cynthia Brown (far left) with children who attend her Little People Christian Daycare summer camp. (Below left): Faith Arnold speaks about her experiences during a community teach-in on July 30 in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. Michael Romain.

Thursday, July 30, 2015 || By Michael Romain

“We’re here because our communities are being devastated by budget cuts to childcare, school homes, home care and other services, while banks and rich CEOs make off like bandits,” said Cynthia Brown, the owner of Little People Christian Daycare in Maywood.

Brown was among a group of about 30 people who got together in a shaded corner of LaFollette Park in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on a hot July 30 afternoon for a community teach-in. The idea for the gathering was hatched by the Grassroots Collaborative, a coalition of labor unions and community organizations. Most of the people at the park were females — teachers, paraprofessionals and childcare providers…

The attitude of Latin American populist leaders to one institution they haven’t been able to dominate — the Catholic Church — varies. On the one hand, they’re regularly at odds with many Catholic bishops. In January 2015, a pastoral letter issued by Venezuela’s Catholic bishops courageously described their government’s policies as “totalitarian and centralist.” The regime, the bishops added, seeks control “over all aspects of the lives of the citizens and public and private institutions. It also threatens freedom and the rights of persons and associations and has led to oppression and ruin in every country where it has been tried.”

The government’s reaction to this critique was the usual demagoguery. Nonetheless the same populist leaders regularly invoke Christian symbols to legitimize their ideologies. Bolivian President Evo Morales’ presentation of what’s now called “the communist crucifix” to Pope Francis is one such example. Whatever the motives of the deceased priest who designed the cross, the fact that the hammer-and-sickle symbolizes philosophical materialism, police-states, and the mass imprisonment, torture and murder of millions of people counts for nothing in the rather provincial world of Latin American leftist-populism.

“Why can’t we confirm or deny the content of these [secret] agreements [about inspection protocols] in public?” Mr. [Tom] Cotton inquires. “Why is it classified. It’s not a sensitive U.S. government document. The ayatollahs know what they’ve agreed to.”

“Because,” Mr. Kerry replies, “we respect the process of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], and we don’t have their authorization to reveal what is a confidential agreement between them and another country.”

Senator Cotton then asks him: “So the ayatollahs will know what they’ve agreed to but not the American people.”

“Well, the, no, not exactly,” Mr. Kerry harrumphs, “because we will share with you in the classified briefing what we understand things to be. But they negotiated the agreement with the IAEA. The IAEA is an independent entity under the united nations, Senator, as I know you know, and I don’t know even at this point what the law says about the United States requiring something that another entity’s laws prohibit.”

Kerry and the other main U.S. negotiator, the Sec. of Energy, had each said he knows for sure of no American negotiator who has read this agreement.

NY Sun:

This will be remembered as a classic of State Department arrogance in the face of a legislature whose approval the State Secretary and President are seeking for an agreement with a country that refers to us as the Great Satan and swears to wipe Israel off the map.

Adds:

If we were going before the Senate on this head, we’d make a point of knowing what the law says about the United States requiring information that another “entity’s” laws prohibit us from having. We’d make it a point of standing for open covenants [agreements]. The world knows all about closed ones and how they lead to war.

And is learning how “State Department arrogance” flouts citizens’ elected representative bodies. Or entities, as Kerry would have it.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pope Francis’ favorability rating in the U.S. has returned to where it was when he was elected pope. It is now at 59%, down from 76% in early 2014. The pontiff’s rating is similar to the 58% he received from Americans in April 2013, soon after he was elected pope.

The Most Reverend Blaise Cupich and the head woman of the nation’s whole damn Evironmental Protection Agency, also known as its Employment Prevention Agency, take us from clean air asthma-protection (who can object to it?) to this:

The fight against climate change isn’t a sprint — it’s a marathon. But with continued leadership and committed action from the archdiocese, from Chicago, and from congregations and communities across America, we can turn the challenge of climate change into an opportunity to build a cleaner, healthier, more prosperous future.

A month ago, Pope Francis asked, “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?”

We all know the answer, and that’s why we’re working together — faith leaders, public officials and private citizens — to make it a reality. [Italics added]

To make what a reality? Give me antecedents to match those pronouns.

And turning challenge of such and such into an opportunity? To build a cleaner, healthier, etc.? How about cleaning up the air for asthmatic children and letting it go at that?

This is such a play for national visibility as to unleash a flood of disbelief. What about flood-prevention while we’re at it?

The worst sectors of the worst recovery since World War II are business investment in new plants and equipment and new business start-ups. These are the biggest job-creators, and their slump is a key reason for the sub-par labor recovery, with low participation rates and high involuntary part-time workers.